FX Inflicts Ratings 'Damages'

Following the big premiere ratings for TNT's "Saving Grace" Monday night, FX followed up with strong numbers for the debut of its newest series "Damages." The show, starring Glenn Close as a powerful New York attorney, pulled in 3.7 million viewers for its commercial-free premiere Tuesday night.

That's a good bit below the 6.4 million who watched "Grace" Monday but is still very respectable for a cable show. It's on par with the premiere of "Nip/Tuck" in 2003 and was the most-watched show on basic cable for the night.

About a third of the premiere audience, 1.2 million people, fell within FX's target demographic of adults 18-49. The figure for adults 25-54 was 1.5 million. Additional airings later in the night bumped the total-viewer number up to 5.1 million.

The premiere of "Damages" also compares favorably to the season-four opener of "Rescue Me" in June, which drew 2.8 million viewers for its initial airing (that number went up to 3.3 million when DVR usage was factored in).

"Damages," which garnered mostly positive critical notices, stars Close as Patty Hewes, a litigator pursuing a class-action case against a CEO (Ted Danson) whose employees have lost their retirement funds. The show also stars Rose Byrne as a young associate of Hewes thrown into the middle of the case, along with Tate Donovan, Zeljko Ivanek and Noah Bean.